'Fairy tale relationship': After decades together, husband and wife died hours apart

DUNDEE ‒ Stephen and Sandra Cunningham did everything together.

They rode a Harley-Davidson motorcycle to every state in the union except Alaska and Hawaii. They loved to fish and spent many hours on their pontoon boat at Leesville Lake . They enjoyed going to the Yankee Peddler Festival in Canal Fulton. They danced with a clogging group, and they hosted a apple butter festival every September at their farm near Dundee, Three Springs Produce Farm.

And they died nine and a half hours apart.

Sandra, 82, died on June 13, and Stephen, 78, a Vietnam veteran, died on June 14.

According to their obituary, their motto was "Where One Goes, Both Go."

Stephen had been battling cancer for three years, according to their daughter, Kyra Cunningham of Canton. The family knew his time was getting close to the end. Then Sandra went into the hospital. Kyra said the family suspected she also had cancer. Sandra told her doctors she wanted to come home to be with her husband.

"She came home, and they died together," Kyra said. "I honestly thought Dad was going to go before Mom. He was ready. But then when Mom came back from the hospital, you could tell that he was just waiting for her. And he waited for her. And so she went, and then nine and a half hours later, the next day, is when Dad went.

"It's the only way I'm getting through it, to know that they were together, and this is how they would have wanted it. They did everything together."

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Married in six months

They met in 1972 at a party in Massillon. "Six months later, he looked at her and said, so, are we going to do this, or what? Mom said, are you proposing to me? He said, well, I guess I am. So, they got married," Kyra said.

After they married, Sandra told Stephen that she wanted to live on a farm because she had grown up on a farm. So, they bought property on Lower Trail Road near Dundee. They raised chickens and goats and sold sweet corn, watermelon and cantaloupe.

For 29 years, starting in the 1980s, they would have an apple butter festival on the first Sunday in September. They had a 55-gallon copper kettle on a stand where they would boil down cider and apples and make apple butter. They also had a 30-gallon copper kettle where they would make chili. Their clogging friends would come, along with a band.

"All the dancers had 3 by 3 boards. They put their boards together, and we would have a stage set up. We would have a literal hoedown. People would be clogging and playing folk music all day long," Kyra said.

They sold the farm in 2010 and moved to a house on Kohr Road NW near Dundee.

Bus driver and nurse

Stephen owned the Irish Chimney Sweep Cleaning service, and retired driving school bus for East Holmes School District and maintenance staff at Buckeye Career Center in New Philadelphia. Sandra retired from Joel Pomerene Hospital in Millersburg and taught nursing at the Buckeye Career Center in New Philadelphia.

A daughter, Kirsten (Hayden) Hanks, 45, of Dundee died of cancer in 2011. Kyra said the family plans to spread the ashes of Stephen, Sandra and Kirsten together at a favorite place in Wayne County.

Celebration of life

The family will host a celebration of life covered dish event at the residence at 2 p.m. Saturday.

"My parents have had a very unique relationship," Kyra said. "It has always been instilled in us there are no secrets, so Mom and Dad knew every dirt little detail my sister and I ever did, whether they liked it or not. But that's just the way Mom and Dad always were. They were always upfront and honest.

"I can say that my parents have had a fairy tale relationship because all my relationships, I've always based it on Mom and Dad, which was perfection. Mom nor Dad ever said one bad word about the other. They never raised their voices, never argued with each other. They may have behind closed doors. In front of my sister and I, everything was just perfection. They did everything together."

Reach Jon at 330-364-8415 or at jon.baker@timesreporter.com.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Reporter: 'Fairy tale relationship': After decades together, husband and wife died hours apart